We're not having a baby!

But we are adopting one!
Seriously, I'm not kidding. I'll give you all a moment to digest that....

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.....

Okay. Done freaking out? Ready to get your questions answered?

Arnold and I are well on our way to becoming parents and though we've been keeping it on the down low for awhile now, it's time to go public and share our exciting news! Have questions? I thought so... that's why I prepared this handy FAQ post based on questions we've fielded from our close families and friends.

1) Baby?, Huh? Really, Whah? Are you serious?

Yes, we are totally serious. I know it's hard to believe, especially given Arnold's proclivity for making up stuff for fun. We decided to start a family awhile ago and it turned out that adoption was the best way for us.

2) What, when, where, why?

Well, during our research we found out that Colombia has an extremely preferential program for Colombian citizens and that we are "the ideal adoptive parents for a Colombian infant". We recently sent our adoption dossier to Colombia which means we will soon be on an official wait list. The most likely scenario is that we'll receive a referral within the next six months for a child between 6 months and 2 years old. So, uh... yeah, we could well be parents by the end of the year. That's right... 6 months from now. Cue my daily panic attack.

3) The elephant in the room. Why are you adopting?

I think you can all guess at that. It's not really something I want to talk about on the internet. Sorry to disappoint. :(

4) How does this whole adoption hullabaloo work?

Well, I am so glad you asked! I've set up a whole special page on our new blog to explain this! Click on the adoption tab at the top to find out how the whole things works and where we are in the timeline.

6) Did you ask for a boy, a girl, a dinosaur?

We indicated a preference for a little girl but that is not a guarantee. So for now... I call the baby "Triceratops" because I think it's fun to say Triceratops. When I'm feeling like a loving future soon-t0-be-mom of a Colombian infant I call the baby "Triceratopcita"

5) I don't get the new blog?

Well, I established this blog to mark Arnold's and I transition from a couple to a family... and also because Chhimi has been graciously hosting me for 3 years and it time to stop being such a mooch.

6) But what about Maghanoy.com? Maghanoy.com is awesome!

I know, it so is! I still own the Maghanoy.com url and have some fun ideas for that url in the future. For now I'll be posting at notoriousmle.com. Soon I'll start migrating over all the archives from maghanoy.com to this url... Until then you can check out the adoption related posts we've made over the last few months by scrolling through this blog.

7) Uhm, why the *^!#$%! are you telling me about this on your blog?

Sorry Mom! Just kidding, of course I told my Mom in person.

Well... we'd love to sit down and share our news with everybody we know in person but... uh we know/love a lot of people and lots of people we'd like to tell in person are not people that we see very often. This includes both family and friends. To be honest, this is the easiest way for us to reach a lot of people directly i.e. not through third parties. I've been blogging about the high, low and mundane points of the adoption since January and you can read more about that by clicking the adoption tag in the right column.

Okay, thus ends the Adoption FAQ. Hope it was enlightening. More questions? Post them in the comments!